One way parents and teachers alike can foster creativity in young children is to refrain from the constant controlling of the child's environment. Children are not adults, they need time and freedom to daydream, explore at their pace, and solve their own problems while learning. Parents should also remember that children are always learning. Unfortunately adults have a natural desire to control, manipulate and supervise environments. Too much control of the child's world can reduce the level of the child's spontaneity and self-confidence and those are essential ingredients to the creative spirit.

Another important aspect of creativity is perseverance whenever a child is engaged in a creative effort. Encouragement and appreciation of the effort is important as well as the completion of the project. Although sometimes a child's finished product can be less than perfect, it takes the child an extraordinary amount of effort and concentration to complete the task. Sometimes they can become frustrated, bored and move on to something new, and that is fine. Encouragement can work wonders in those cases, rather than the parent's or teacher's temptation to "help" the child complete the task at hand.

Back to Articles